This journal records my actual 10,000 hours deliberate practice mastery of fine art photography
Hours 9,512 – 9,595
31st March 2025
Hours 9,593 to 9,595
(1h) editing and processing “Barb’s Dogs” from last night
(1h) editing yesterday’s “Magritte’s Mirror Image” images which really need reshooting to get the right bits properly in focus, that they weren’t yesterday
(1h) Amersham Photographic Society – Ask APS presentation on cyanotypes – interesting discussion with Mark Seymour about Mark Fearnley (professional photographer and artist friend of Mark S.) whose multiple exposure work is not entirely dissimilar to mine
30th March 2025
Hours 9,589 to 9,592
(½h) updating this journal including the Flickr site links
(½h) shooting the background for the image right, including waiting for the clouds to get in a suitable position
(½h) creating “Sunny Conversation”, right, using the background, shot earlier, adjusted for the standard values for the panel
(½h) creating revised versions of “Magritte Stole Corfe Castle”
(1h) re-shooting “Magritte’s Mirror Image”
(½h) shooting Barb’s black dogs on a black background
(½h) processing PDI’s for this week’s Amersham Beyond meeting and prints for Wednesday’s coffee club meeting
29th March 2025
Hours 9,585 to 9,588
(1h) revising the “Missing Wall Lovers” first produced yesterday
(½h) processing yesterday’s images including my shot of Harley in the Garden, left
(½h) updating this journal
(2h) producing new versions of the following so that the sky, curtains and whites are all of a standard colour:
- “Memory of Nefertiti”, right
- “My Double Secret”, below
- “Phillips Auction House Human Condition”, above
28th March 2025
Hours 9,583 to 9,584
(½h) shooting at the Memorial Gardens, and practicing using my new 400mm lens in the garden (birds and dog)
(1½h) creating a first attempt at a Magritte style “Missing Wall Lovers”, right
27th March 2025
Hours 9,581 to 9,582
(1h) updating this journal and Flickr site
(1h) processing the Magritte “Lovers” and “Bowler Hatted Man” images shot on the 25th
26th March 2025
Hours 9,578 to 9,580
(½h) Amersham Coffee group
(½h) updating this journal – including notes for yesterday’s competition
(½h) editing images for the Colour Group meeting this evening
(1½h) Amersham Colour Group where I was showing my images from the Anthony McCall exhibition attended on 27th February 2025
25th March 2025
Hours 9,572 to 9,577
(2h) shooting more potential Magritte “Lovers” images, plus a few of man in bowler hat. Studio constructed in kitchen with:
- lit white background
- AD600 shooting at the high white ceiling to give generally soft lighting
- 120×30 softbox key light (also AD600)
- 10 shot multi-shot sequence – 10 seconds pause then 3 seconds between shots
- all tethered to MacBook Pro via CaptureOne
(2h) with Laurie Turner, planning the layout of my potential Fellowship panel with the RPS
(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – PDI competition. Set Subject “Streetscapes” (interpreted, by the judge as NOT “Street Photography”). My results below:
24th March 2025
Hours 9,568 to 9,571
(½h) practicing shooting with my newly delivered, massive, Sony FE 400mm f/2.8 OSS G Lens
(1½h) working on the “Winter 2024/ 25” post:
- Statement of Intent for prospective F Panel
- selecting the top 10 images
(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – PDI competition, no skin in the game
23rd March 2025
Hours 9,566 to 9,567
(2h) processing and distributing yesterday’s portraits; plus processing and ordering A5 prints for a panelling session of my potential Fellowship panel with Laurie Turner on Tuesday.
22nd March 2025
Hours 9,562 to 9,565
(4h) shooting family, and other, portraits of visitors to the the Stoke Poges Village Hall during the exhibition for “Village Hall Week”. Shooting hi-key images tethered in a studio environment using 4 lights
21th March 2025
Hours 9,558 to 9,561
(3h) creating revised version of my Magritte images
(1h) testing my tethered shooting and lighting rig for tomorrow’s portraiture session at the village hall
20th March 2025
Hours 9,556 to 9,557
(2h) Amersham PiC Group meeting with presentations by:
- Steve Hunter – Dunescapes from the Gobi desert
- Gill Morgan – landscapes, wide and intimate from Hokkaido, Japan
- Peter Jones – Slovakian street photography from the 1980s (mono film reprocessed and printed digitally)
Good discussion with Mark Phillips, head of the RPS Documentary group, Mick Yates
19th March 2025
Hours 9,553 to 9,555
(2h) Amersham coffee and lunch – lots of good comments on my potential F Panel images
(1h) editing images for next week’s PDI competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club, including a new version of “Bicycles Everywhere”, right
18th March 2025
Hours 9,551 to 9,552
(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Tri Nations competition against Westville Camera Club, in South Africa; Queensland, Australia; and us. The results were in exactly that order, but some fabulous images from the other clubs
… should the following facts turn out to be completely false, the mere idea of their simple possibility is every bit as tremendous as their proven recognized authenticity would be. Besides, once thought, what might begin to happen in the mysterious Universe?”
Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, quoted by Nougé to Magritte, and about which Magritte suggested that it proves the existence of the spirit and transports the reader to a place where they can experience “the sensation of the mind” (p143)
17th March 2025
Hours 9,547 to 9,550
(1h) updating this journal and Flickr site
(2h) at the Amersham Photographic Society – member presentations by
(1h) creating a revised version of yesterday’s “Human Condition” below
16th March 2025
Hours 9,542 to 9,546
(1h) shooting the above version of Magritte’s 1933 “The Human Condition”
(2h) creating the above by combining the image just shot with one of Hastings Meadow, as though it were the view though my patio window
(2h) combining images from Phillips Auction House, Hayes Bypass, my table and, separately, my computer, to create a modern day dystopian Human Condition
15th March 2025
Hours 9,540 to 9,541
(1h) watching the BBC Arts documentary “Gaga for DaDa”
(½h) half an hour shooting and processing [more processing] images of Hastings Meadow that might be usable in a Magritte composite
(½h) adding shadows to the “Magritte’s Fireplace” images, left, (actually modelled on Magritte’s 1938 “Time Transfixed”)
14th March 2025
Hour 9,539
(½h) creating “Butterflies III”, left, in response to the suggestion made at yesterday’s Amersham Mono Group meeting:
- mask the foreground monument
- increase contrast, clarity and structure
- increase brightness
(½h) updating this journal
13th March 2025
Hours 9,536 to 9,538
(½h) creating the following new version of the “Primary Magritte” image for the Amersham beyond group’s Primary Colours challenge. In the I have introduced the suggestion that the light in each of the shapes spills onto it’s neighbours, giving a greater suggestion that they were actually there
(½h) preparing prints for this evening’s Mono group meeting
(½h) updating this journal and Flickr site
(1½h) Amersham Mono Group meeting:
- the split toning of my “Sniffing the Piste” (10th March) image was disapproved of [looked completely different when printed and mounted with an off-white mount and pure white surround to the image]
- other suggestion was to remove the posts
- “Butterflies II” (1st March) required more clarity and structure in the foreground monument
12th March 2025
Hours 9,534 to 9,535
(1h) Amersham Coffee Club discussing the artistic merit of each others’ images, including a number of suggestions which resulted in the creation of my revision below
(1h) creating a new version of a recent favourite, “Decalcomania III” above, which now has much more distinction (line of demarkation) between the cut-out curtain and the original, also curtain added to the left to add balance
11th March 2025
Hours 9,532 to 9,533
(1h) updating this journal and organising the images from Val Thorens into appropriate Lightroom Collections and Folders, and Flickr Albums
(1h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – lecture by Julie Morgan “My Journey to AWPF”
10th March 2025
Hours 9,528 to 9,531
(1h) processing images from Val Thorens and producing the following version of “Smelling the Piste” with a slight blue tone in the highlights – the mono conversion was done in Capture One from the RAW file after my first attempt using photoshop on the colour export had a number of distracting artefacts
(1h) changing the view from the Phillips Auction House to something decidedly more dystopian and creating “Man with Alpine Cough”, right
(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – print competition – no skin in the game
9th March 2025
Hours 9,525 to 9,527
(1h) updating this journal – final bits of new month admin, adding some images from the week, and particularly notes from Alex Danchev’s biography “Magritte a Life”
(2h) creating a new version “Decalcomania”, below, editing and processing the images shot in Val Thorens, and processing for printing so that they can be shown at the Wednesday coffee club
8th March 2025
Hours 9,522 to 9,524
(½h) shooting over 500 exposures, first thing in the morning , mainly of the Alpine Chough birds that seem to exclusively occupy Val Thorens. Goal was to capture an image to be used in a Magritte style composite
(1½h) editing and processing the morning’s images
All prior to a long day of travelling home
Lots of time reading Alex Danchev’s “Magritte a Life”, key insights:
- Paul Nougé (1895-1967), the Belgian poet, theoretical founder of surrealism (‘the Belgian Breton’), “a towering intellect, a polymath,” and regular correspondent with, influence on and collaborator with Magritte (p136)
If the secret desire that justifies the use of metaphor is acknowledged as real, one can also understand why we are startled by any object shown in isolation, in an unfamiliar context: the secret desire for a change in the order of things is fulfilled by the sight of the new order – the isolation”
Magritte commenting on a letter sent by André Souris to to Paul Nougé on the subject of Magritte’s use of metaphor (P140)
(1h) updating this journal, including most of the new month admin that couldn’t be done whilst skiing in Val Thorens
7th March 2025
Hours 9,520 to 9,521
(½h) shooting first thing in the morning, including “Snow Runner and Dog”, below
(½h) editing and processing the morning’s images
- Magritte distrusted originality and felt that plagiarism, and self-plagiarism, is a way of life
(1h) adding the section “Footnote on the role of the proto-surrealists” to the “Surrealism 100 Years on” post
“Alpine Accomodation”, right, shot in the evening from our chalet
6th March 2025
Hours 9,518 to 9,519
(½h) shooting first thing in the morning, including “Woman with Handsome Dog”, below
(½h) editing and processing the morning’s images
(½h) updating this journal, including notes from the “Magritte a Life” book by Alex Danchev
- Magritte learnt from Georges de Chirico to concentrate on the object or problem to be painted eschewing “all the little aesthetic specialities”, the sky was always the same, as was the sea with the cresting wave that was copied from a postcard. Like de Chirico, his style was transparent and did not draw attention to itself, “a style without ceremony, a style as emphatically direct as that of the comic strip” (p116)
- “Each one of us carries within himself a productive originality which is the very core of his being,” said Nietzsche, “and if he becomes aware of this originality, a strange aura, the aura of the extraordinary, shapes itself around him” (p117)
(½h) updating the “Winter 2024/25” post
5th March 2025
Hour 9,517
(½h) shooting first thing in the morning
(½h) editing and processing the morning’s images
Right, “Snowscape I”, actually shot in the evening
4th March 2025
Hour 9,516
(½h) shooting first thing in the morning, mainly black birds (Alpine Chough) for a potential Magritte Composite – replacement for the Common Buzzard which needs a better bird
(½h) editing and processing the morning’s images
3rd March 2025
Hour 9,515
(½h) shooting first thing in the morning, including “Grumpy Snow Dog”, left
(½h) updating this journal
2nd March 2025
Hours 9,513 to 9,514
(½h) shooting first thing in the morning and attempting to shoot some birds later in the day as a replacement for the poor quality bird image in my “Common Buzzard” picture
(½h) editing and processing the images shot over the last couple of days
(1h) updating this journal, some new month admin, mainly inserting images shot in the Phillip’s Gallery, last Thursday
Notes from the Magritte a Life book:
- Magritte’s major artistic influences were Giorgio de Chirico and Max Ernst
- he thought Salvador Dali was over rated
1st March 2025
Hour 9,512
(½h) shooting in the Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens, “Butterflies II”, left
(½h) processing images from the Phillips Gallery for inclusion in this journal